Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter 1: The Importance of Direct Experience of God
Chapter 2: From Works to Spirituality
Chapter 3: Born From Above
Chapter 4: Overcoming the Antichrist
Chapter 5: Victory Over Temptation
APPENDIX A

Introduction

Jesus said, "Take my yoke upon you and learn of me." Yoke is that which unites. In Greek it is the same word as yoga, which also means that which unites. Jesus was trying to say that the only way to learn of him, to know who he really was, was to know him directly through interior union.

This is evident in other places, most notable in his prayer in John 17. "That they all may be one; as thou Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us:" The yoga union of Jesus is with the Father, with God. If we also take on this yoke with the Father and become one with God, we will then be one with Jesus because Jesus is also one with the Father. If we came to know God through union with him then, and only then, would we know that all things that Jesus is or has comes from his union with the Father. "Now they have know that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee." Or in other words, that he came out from the Father. "For I have given unto them the word which thou gavest me; and they have received, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me." Only when we successfully receive the word of God, or the name of God, do we enter into union and experience through this inner union the true nature of Jesus which is totally beyond this world. "And now I am no more in the world,"

This union through his yoke of discipline or yoga has several important fruits. One is perfection. "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one;" Another is love. "Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.... I have declared unto them thy name...that the love wherewith thou has loved me may be in them, and I in them." This also hints that this yoga union involves the name of God, also referred as God's word, or the word of God.

Freedom in the eternal ocean of God is not something that one can go into instantly. It is a process of development, a process of surrender. That is why Jesus said, "If ye continue in my word, ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." There is a name, a word or vibration that one can hear with the soul (not with the physical ears) that, as one rests attentively immersed in it it gradually purifies and expands one's consciousness as one surrenders to it. Jesus could cause a willing disciple to hear or become immersed (baptized) in this word. But without the presence of Jesus to give us this special grace we are not without hope. He had disciples who also had that power of grace. Or we can receive his word, the name of the Father, through following his yoke of discipline.

Another fruit of his yoke of discipline or yoga is glory. "Father, I will that they also, whom thou has given me, be with me where I am (in union with God); that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me:" But perhaps the most overlooked of the fruits of union with God is eternal life. Many, in the habit of thinking in the way of the world, which is time bound, think of eternal life as being time bound. To them eternal life is life that continues through time without end. Eternal life is beyond time. It is God Himself. "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God." Never ending time-bound life would be a prison by comparison. You could liken eternal life to a boundless ocean and never ending time-bound life to a fishing line in the ocean. Eternal life does not mean to be a fishing line no matter how long, nor a fish caught on the line. It means to become one with the ocean itself.

The whole theme of Jesus' teaching to his disciples was that of purification, transformation and sanctification of the whole worldly consciousness into God-consciousness. But his was an oral tradition of direct discipleship. As he was about to give up his physical presence in the world the only hope for his tradition to continue was for his disciples to attain union with God. He makes this grave necessity clear through this prayer in John 17 "that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves."

He makes it clear that the whole purpose of his life is "that they all may be one, as thou Father, art in me." Without direct experience of God through union his whole teaching would be derailed. It would have no purpose or meaning. The Epistle of John, when examined carefully, will be seen to be an attempt to supplement that tradition, including written instruction, however terse, in the yoke of self transformation through immersion in union with God.

Technical note: For consistency with the practice of the King James Bible the use of "he" has been retained to refer to all souls regardless of outer gender. Since the soul is neither he nor she both are really inadequate.

EXOSITORY PARAPHRASE: From the beginning is the Son, the Word of Life, also known as the Blood of Jesus. How does one hear that which was from the beginning? From the blood comes the body. So from the Beginning comes the Sound of Many Waters, also known as the great Amen, the Holy Ghost, and the Body of Jesus. This sound is the vibratory structure of creation. The universe then is the outward manifestation of this vibration or sound.

The blood gives life to the body. That which gives life to the universe is its blood. This blood is the light that lighteth every life that cometh into the world.

COMMENTARY: "The light of the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." To look upon the one light that lighteth every life all that is needed is to make thine eyes a single eye. The dual current of male and female splits and flows into the two eyes which then behold only this world of matter. When the male and female currents going into the eyes are joined they then become focused into a new world, the world of the Only Begotten Son of God. We found that when we did this we beheld the blood of Jesus that is shed abroad in all hearts for the washing away of the original sin of ignorance of our Infinite God.

First we were comforted by the Holy Ghost, the Comforter. We heard a mighty sound, like waters everywhere. This experience cannot be adequately described to someone who has not experienced it. That is the reason it must be kept secret. It is being shouted from the mountain tops. But only those who go to the mountain top can hear it. Those who go to the mountain top will find that it is far more real than what is handled with the hands. People think something is real if they can handle it with their hands, because in such a way they think they have experienced it directly. We say our hands have handled this Word of Life because we have experienced more directly than if our hands had handled it.

2. For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;

PARAPHRASE: This Eternal Life that gives life to all was made real to us when we penetrated the spiritual eye. We have the authority to speak about this Eternal Life to you because we can speak from our own direct experience. We can bear witness to the Truth because we ourselves have seen it.

COMMENTARY: Only those who can speak from direct experience can speak with authority. We have ourselves experienced this Life Eternal which was in the bosom of the Eternal Spirit beyond all variableness, and is being made manifest in the drama of creation, so we can speak with authority. 3. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

PARAPHRASE: We tell you about experiencing the immensity of God through Gnosis, through mystical union, so that you also can have the same experience. And truly this experience is of God, and of His Son, Jesus Christ, the Name of God.

4. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.

PARAPHRASE : When you experience the immensity of God through mystical union (gnosis) then truly your joy will be full. You don't know what fullness of joy is until you have this fellowship with the Son through mystical union (gnosis).

5. This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

PARAPHRASE: The first thing we must tell you based on our experience of God in mystical union is that He is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. All the children of darkness from ignorance, sorrow and separation to selfishness, anger and prejudice are entirely absent.

6. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

PARAPHRASE: If we say that we have this experience of God as shadowless light and yet our lives show that we are till selfish, have worldly attachments, or otherwise manifest characteristics of carnal, unregenerate living then you know that we are lying because the Truth is not manifesting in our outer lives.

7. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

PARAPHRASE: If we can carry the experience of that joyous light into our activity not only will we feel our oneness with others, but the Son, the life-blood that was fully circulating in Jesus, will cleanse us of all Maya (the delusion that is the springboard or root cause of all sin, original sin.)

8. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

PARAPHRASE: Although the root cause of all sin is the delusion that we are separate from God, holding philosophically to the idea that we are ever perfect in the bosom of god will not take away our delusion, it will not make that truth a reality for us. We would only be deceiving ourselves while remaining in sin. The mind itself is a product of delusion and as such does not have the power to free us.

9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

PARAPHRASE: One of the attractions of simply holding to the idea that we are ever perfect in the bosom of God is that it requires little effort. To actually realize the truth requires much effort, much sacrifice. First, we must make a regular practice of self-study to become aware of all our shortcomings, all our delusions and transgressions of spiritual law. Then we must wage spiritual warfare against them with all renunciation and prayer so that God may work through us, cleansing us from all unrighteousness. To confess your sins to God means: 1) to discover them by self-study, 2) to abhor them, 3) to renounce them, 4) to give them to God, to commit the sin to the fire of God-Joy in deep meditation, 5) to use your God-Joy reinforced will to live the opposite of that sin from now on.

10. If we say that we have not sinned we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

PARAPHRASE: If we think, "Self-study is not really important for me because I rarely sin, and I certainly can skip it today because I have not sinned today," then we are saying God is bound by Satan, and under the sway of his delusions. Only if we have full experience of our oneness with God identity with body and mind long since fallen away, and all seeds of desire roasted in the fire of our fully awakened cosmic consciousness, and all fruits of past action, good and bad, burned in that Light in which is no darkness at all, can we say we have no sin. But in that case there is no more ego left to say it has or has not sinned. So in no case can we say that we have not sinned. Either the wall of partition (Maya) between us and God is gone and we are one with God just as Jesus is one with the Father, or we have sinned and need confession, i.e.: 1. self-study, 2) sorrow for our sin, 3) renunciation of our sin, 4) meditation, immersion (baptism) in God's joy, 5) righteous activity, penance (acting to please God instead of for personal gain).

PARAPHRASE: Seekers of God, I am writing to you because I want you to destroy the works of Satan, the root cause of sin, that henceforth you sin not. But if you think Satan is too strong, remember that in Jesus all the delusions of Satan have been destroyed. That is why the Christ, the Word of Life, the perfect light of God, has fully manifested in his flesh. If it can happen for Jesus it can happen for you too, especially because you have Jesus to help you.

COMMENTARY: Satan is the adversary of Christ. Whereas Christ is ever drawing people toward God, Satan is ever striving to keep people away from God. When people identify with body, mind, and individuality instead of with the changeless Infinite they feel smallness, lack, and separateness. That is why people are unfulfilled and always running after desires. Satan's primary work is creating this false identity. This false identity then becomes the springboard for sin. Satan wants people to try to satisfy their ceaseless desire with the things of this world: possessions, recognition, temporal power, pride, and so forth. To do so he is continually lying to us to make us believe that these will fill our void and give us the happiness that we seek. To summarize: Satan is that great power that creates in us the belief that the flesh that fades like the grass of the field is our reality and the basis of our self, and prevents us from believing in the reality of our true Self which is made in the image and likeness of God, beyond time, space, and relativity.

The cornerstone of original Christian teaching was the goal of apotheosis, realization of the soul as the true Self in oneness with God. The proof of the possibility of this oneness with God was that one, named Jesus, had already achieved full realization of the soul as his true Self in oneness with God. Since he was already identified with this Self as his own self, this Self and its various designations were sometimes used to refer to Jesus, and Jesus himself, of course thought of himself as that universal consciousness of love that lighteth everyone that comes into the world.

2. And he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.

PARAPHRASE: Jesus, being fully identified with the Son of God, that universal consciousness that lighteth every person who comes into the world, refers not to the physical body he works through, nor to his social self as son of Joseph, but to the universal light that awakens consciousness in all life-forms and magnetically draws them toward God.

Commentary: People of the world have fallen out of favor with God. The Bible uses the technical term sin to refer to that which has caused this loss of the favor of God. To illustrate the truth of this disfavor look outside through the windows of the senses. What do you see? Well, of course, you see the objects of the senses, you experience sensations. Now turn the attention around and look back on its source. Look inside. Now what do you see? The whole kingdom of God is within you. Do you see it? Do you know experience that Supreme Reality that both transcends and encompasses all other realities? If you do not then you have proof that you have fallen out of favor with God.

In some philosophies that lack of favor, that lack of direct experience of the Supreme Reality, is thought to have no beginning and so does not require a cause. In the Christian world view it is thought to have a cause. This cause is called sin. The prime objective of life then becomes to overcome the consequences of sin so that the direct experience of the Supreme Reality can be reestablished.

That then which reestablishes our direct experience of God, of the Supreme Reality, is thought to have propitiated our sins and thus regained the favor of God. Believing this is useless unless we follow through until our experience of God is complete, permanent, and all-satisfying.

Sometimes to further emphasize that the reference to Jesus is referring to this universal magnetic power of divine love reference is made to the blood of Jesus. As the blood circulates through the body, giving it life and carrying away toxins, so the Christ Consciousness, that universal love, circulates throughout creation spreading life everywhere and counteracting the toxins arising from ignorance.

3. And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.

PARAPHRASE: When we know God, when we continually experience the omnipresent Blood of Christ, we will automatically fulfill all the laws of righteousness. Knowing the most lovable we will automatically love Him so intensely we will not have any other gods (desires) before Him. All our actions and desires will then be only to please Him. He, being compassion itself, when we know Him will be filled with compassion for all beings.

4. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

PARAPHRASE: He that saith, "I know Him," and keepeth not His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. Christendom is full of people who say they know God. But if they really knew God they would not sin, they would fulfill all righteousness.

5. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.

PARAPHRASE: It is only when the love of God is perfectly manifest within us that we can truthfully say we know Him. And it is only then that we will keep His word, that we will manifest His righteousness. We can neither keep His commandments without knowing Him nor know Him without keeping His commandments.

Commentary: The first commandment of Jesus is to love God with the whole heart. Attachments, desires, and fears become obsolete when we become one with the all-satisfying joy of Truth. When we realize God we will automatically love the most lovable and all-satisfying bliss. How can we love God with the whole heart unless we know him. Therein lies the beauty of this test. If we know him we will also love him with the whole heart. If we love him with the whole heart this precludes that we know him.

6. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

PARAPHRASE: Another common claim in Christendom today is that "Jesus lives in my heart." If that were so he would "walk even as He walked."

COMMENTARY: When someone claims that Jesus lives in their heart I cannot believe it. Of course he lives in all hearts. Jesus, Christ Consciousness, is universal and all-embracing. If he lives in your heart, meaning he lives in your life and consciousness, then your heart and mind would be universal and all-embracing. You could no longer recognize "my" as separate from the rest of humanity, nay, from the rest of life. How then could you speak of "my heart," or single yourself out as somehow specially blessed. Jesus lives in my heart could only mean that Jesus lives in all hearts. So why beat around the bush. Just say Jesus lives in all hearts, in all life.

7. Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.

PARAPHRASE: The teaching that I am giving is not new to you for the most part. The morality and commandments that you have learned since childhood is what I am emphasizing - nonviolence, chastity, non-stealing, truthfulness, non-covetousness, loyalty to God, purity, and self-study for the purpose of repentance and penance.

8. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.

PARAPHRASE: I am also emphasizing a new commandment. Basic morality is the husk. It is the receptacle for the inner germ, the true light, the reality of love.

9. He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.

PARAPHRASE: The true light is the reality of love, the Christ Consciousness, the life-giving Blood that flows through all creation nourishing it with consciousness and drawing all towards God. He that saith he is in the light and hateth anyone is yet in darkest delusion. The true light loveth all and hateth none. He that is in the light is enwrapped by the purity of love that loveth all alike, omnipresent and all-embracing, so that he cannot help but feel love for all.

10. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.

PARAPHRASE: When one feels love in his heart it is the Son that he feels. As long as he lives by that love he will be moving steadfastly Godward.

COMMENTARY: It must be remembered that love here does not mean attachment as it so commonly does in our impoverished language. Love is the power that draws us Godward. It expresses itself as goodwill and true service.

11. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.

PARAPHRASE: If one cherishes hate in his heart for any creature he is holding a dark cloud that hides his own path to God.

12. I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake.

PARAPHRSE: It is because God wants you back in His bosom of infinite bliss that He forgives sin. That is why he forgives our sins as we move toward Him, burning them in the fire of joy we experience through meditative communion (rapture). This meditative communion grows from the fruit of the practice of the old commandments, the ten commandments. That fruit is control of the body and mind. That is also why He does not forgive us our sins when we do not move toward Him. As Jesus said, "If you do not forgive men their trespasses neither will God forgive you your trespasses." (Matthew 6:15) Such forgiveness would not help us return to Him. He forgives only for His name's sake, which is to have us back in His bosom. It is through humility and receptivity like little children that He forgives because only then will it help fulfill the purpose for which His name went forth. It is through humility and receptivity like little children that we receive His joy. That is why I like to call you little children.

COMMENTARY: If the fire of joy is released before control of body and mind is well established through practice of chastity, non-covetousness and the other virtues it will not be able to produce the bliss of meditative communion (rapture, immersion or baptism in the Spirit), but will rush down the wrong rivers and create obsessions for things of the external world, the world of illusions that withers like the grass of the field.

13. I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.

PARAPHRASE: But that does not mean I would not also like to call you fathers, because when through your humility and receptivity as little children you finally experience all creation as a single body of joy with all things as its limbs, then you will in truth know the Amen, the beginning of the creation of God. The Alpha and Omega, the great OM vibration, the mighty wind, the sound of many waters, is like "four beasts full of eyes before and behind." (Revelation 4:6) Before them they behold the forms of creation as its vibratory limbs and behind them they behold the unplumbed depths of the vibrationless Infinite, that Being so Real that all creation appears only as a passing vapor or dream by comparison. ("For what is your life: it is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." James 4:14)

COMMENTARY: The four beasts are the four threads from which the fabric of creation is spun. The first thread is the idea of division from which arises the idea of space. The second thread is the idea of change from which arises the idea of time. Third the idea of particles from which arises the idea of individuality. The fourth thread is the idea of movement or vibration that objectifies the blueprint for creation into true-to-life cinema picture shows.

So you see, I am writing unto you so you will become first little children and finally fathers. But first you must overcome the wicked one. You see, when the Amen objectifies creation according to the blueprint of the Son, the delusion arises in individual souls that they are the objectification (the body, mind and individuality) and not the Son (the Universal Consciousness that gives life to the life-forms projected on the screen of space). This delusion is the wicked one (Satan) that must be overcome. But first, if you are to know the Father, you must become humble and receptive like little children.

14. I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the work of god abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.

PARAPHRASE: I want to call you fathers because you know Him who was from the beginning, the Amen, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning of the creation of God. I want to call you young men because you are strong and able to lift up the son of man (human consciousness) and float it on the great vibration of the Amen, the Sound of Many Waters.

15. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

PARAPHRASE: There is much misunderstanding of what love is. People say, "I love my car, I love my house. I love good food. I love movies. I love the mountains. I love painting. I love sports." These all refer to attachment and desire for the things of the world. This has nothing to do with love of the Father that is manifest to us through the Son. Those who think attachment or desire for the things of this world is love have not begun to understand what the love of the Father is. The love of the Father is the Son in His aspect of the Blood, the omnipresent consciousness that nurtures all with consciousness and draws them God-ward. It begins to manifest in those who are receptive first in the form of compassion and sympathy for others, then as peace, unselfishness, humility and finally in its naked form of heart-melting bliss and all-embracing love. Love (desire and attachment) for the things of the world prevent realization of the love of the Father.

16. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

PARAPHRASE: Physical and spiritual life are two different things. Physical life is the objectification of the dream ideas of the Son. It has three aspects which might be termed physical, astral, and causal, or inertia, force and consciousness, or mass, energy, and intelligence. Thy physical has in its makeup "lust of the flesh," the physical or biological drives: to eat, to sleep, to move, to eliminate, and to procreate. The astral includes the drives of the heart, "the lust of the eyes," to enjoy beautiful objects, to have recognition, to own, and the social drives. The causal includes "the pride of life," the thirst for one's own individuality. Al these are not of the Father but are of the drama of the world.

17. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

PARAPHRASE: The problem with the world is inherent in its nature. It is change, rooted in the relativity of creation. No pleasure, satisfaction, or fulfillment that can be derived from this world will endure. They all flit away almost as soon as they alight. But he that does the will of God, which is yoga or union of the individuality with the Eternal, gains a pleasure, a satisfaction, and fulfillment that will never wane or pass away.

18. Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.

PARAPHRASE: Receptive ones, the war to conquer Satan, the evil one, and find yoga or union with God, is the war to end all wars. You have heard that the delusion of Satan (Antichrist) will come to foil your attempts at union with God. But even now you are fighting many delusions, evil tendencies, and bad habits so you should realize that you are actually fighting the war to end all wars. When Change (Death or Satan - the delusion that we are a spec of individuality within change, division and vibration) is conquered you will awaken in the Changeless Eternal and taste the wisdom that Eternal Peace yields.

19. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us; but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

PARAPHRASE: We used to identify with all our evil tendencies, embracing them as friends and a part of our nature. But sooner or later evil tendencies betray themselves. Although they always promise happiness they always give pain and disappointment in the end. If evil tendencies, worldliness and bad habits belonged to us they no doubt would have continued to yield us ever increasing peace, joy, and contentment. But because they have turned against us and give us pain, fear and disappointment in the end we know they are our enemies.

20. But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.

PARAPHRASE: Whereas your superficial self is full of delusion, evil tendencies, bad habits, and deceitful lusts, your real Self is not like that at all. Your true Self is made in the image and likeness of God. It therefore has all the qualities of God including knowledge of all things. When you realize your true Self you will know all things. The longing for union with God that you have received from the Son, the one Unity in the midst of multiplicity, will, when it bears its fruit of Self-Realization, also yield you knowledge of all things.

21. I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.

PARAPHRASE: I am not writing to you because you do not know that all the promises of the world are lies that do not yeild their promised happiness. Nor am I writing to you because you do not know the truth that true and lasting happiness comes only from following the hard path to Spirit, and that the purpose of life is union with God.

22. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.

PARAPHRASE: Many say that union with God is not even possible, or at least not in this life. But if becoming one with God is not possible in this life then Jesus could not have been one with the Father. Those who deny that we can experience conscious union with God in this life are actually denying that Jesus was the Christ. They are denying that the Christ was fully manifested in the body of Jesus because the Christ, the Son, is always one with the Father. He that denieth that we can become one with the Father and the Son in this life is Antichrist. Our doubts that keep us from striving wholeheartedly for union with God spring from Antichrist. So even now is Antichrist in your world.

23. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father.

PARAPHRASE: And, of course since the Son is one with the Father, in denying entrance into union with the Son, union with the Father is also denied. But more specifically, union with the Father comes only through union with the Son. There can be no union with the Father except through union with the Son. Only through the Son can we go to the Father.

COMMENTARY: Remember the Son is the universal power that gives consciousness to all life-forms and that draws them Godward. Only through the power of this divine love can we reach the Supreme Reality (the Father) which transcends and embraces all other realities.

24. Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.

PARAPHRASE: If the Sound arising from the Beginning (the Amen, the beginning of the creation of God) shall remain in you, as you merge deeper and deeper with it you will continue to grow more and more in knowledge and awareness of the Son and of the Father.

25. And this is the promise that he hath promised us, eternal life.

PARAPHRASE: Although what may be required of you in order to continue hearing the sound of Many Waters (the Amen) may be great, the promise we have if we continue to the end is to enter into the Eternal Life of the Father. "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in His throne." (Revelation 3;21)

26. These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.

PARAPHRASE: I have only written this little bit concerning them that seduce you to seek your happiness from this world or who try to negate the necessity of arduous spiritual discipline because all the verbal explanation in the world is of limited value.

27. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

PARAPHRASE: Only the results you gain from practicing the techniques of meditation you have been anointed with will be fully convincing. If you practice regularly, deeply and with devotion you will receive the answers to all your questions from within. But most important, you will thereby abide in Him. This is the central truth that you will learn, that you should live in the consciousness of God.

28. And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

PARAPHRASE: And so, little children, let your abiding be only in Him and not in anything of this world so that when He appears to you in deep meditation you will be able to receive Him and not shrink from Him because of your attachment to things of this world.

29. If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.

PARAPHRASE: When you experience His righteousness within you, you will see all acts of righteousness as expressions of God's righteousness. And you will know that whenever anyone dies to self-centeredness and lives only for God, that he is born of God regardless of his outer role, be he Muslim, Hindu, or Jew, be he Protestant, Catholic, or Orthodox.

PARAPHRASE: If we are to live up to our calling we must realize the intimacy of God's love for us. We are not His servants. We are not His creatures. We verily are His children. The child comes out of the bosom of the mother and shares her nature. We have come out of the bosom of God and share His likeness. We are part and parcel of His Being. Only those who know the Father in truth really know who you are. So do not be too intimate with those who are engrossed in this world.

2. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

PARAPHRASE: Dearly beloved, although you know you are children of God you still have no conception of the potential this implies for you. But this idea will help you to understand: when He appears to you in deepest meditation you will be like Him because the only way to behold Him who is beyond senses and mind is to become one with Him. Only then will you know Him as He really is.

3. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

PARAPHRASE: And if this is your hope, to know Him, to behold Him through interior union, then you will purge yourself of all contrary desire and everything that stands in the way of your union with God. If you are to be one with Him who is purity itself you know that the same purity must be manifest in you.

4. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

PARAPHRASE: There are those who suppose they can be pure and sinless through Him and yet not keep the law, and not practice non-violence, non-stealing, truthfulness, chastity, non-covetousness, and perfect loyalty to God. That can never be. Sin is the transgression of the law. If they were pure and sinless by the blood of the lamb they would not violate the inner spirit of the law. They would therefore be free of enmity towards any creature. They would be free of desire to deceive and thus always be honest to themselves and others. They would not desire the possessions of others belongings and so would never steal time, life, attention, affection, belongings, or rights of any being. They would be free of desire to engage in sexual activity except to fulfill its intended purpose of procreation. They would not covet involvement with this world, especially not the things of others. And they would be loyal to God, giving Him all the heart's devotion, all the mind's attention, and the body's activity according to His teaching to them. Otherwise they would be in transgression of the law and not yet made pure and sinless.

COMMENTARY: The root of sin (original sin) is ignorance of our oneness with God. It is because of this ignorance that we act for the fruit of this world. As long as this ignorance remains it will continue to beget its children of activities arising from ego. The delineation of the law is only a commentary on the types of activities the individual tends to get involved with when it is lacking awareness of its true nature which is the image and likeness of God. Since sinless action is therefore not possible as long as the belief remains that we are somehow physical beings separate from God the only action left that will not increase bondage is to act only to please God.

5. And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins: and in him is no sin.

PARAPHRASE: You already know that the reason He is made manifest is to take away our sins. But if you don't let Him manifest in your consciousness how will He was away your sins? You must immerse yourself in His manifest presence again and again through the technique of baptism in the Holy Ghost until your inclination to transgress the law is gone.

6. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not; whosoever sinneth hath not seen him neither known him.

PARAPHRASE: If you are living in the consciousness of God you will not sin. If you are still bend on sinning then you haven't even seen God yet, nor experienced Him manifest in you.

COMMENTARY: This is such a pivotal point that it deserves extra comment. The point is made here that the act of sin is proof that God has not been seen. The implication then is that the only way to overcome sin is through the vision of God. This emphasizes the absolute necessity of gaining the vision of God. One must remain a bondslave to sin unless one can gain the vision of God.

Careful discernment reveals two different degrees in communion with God. When one is caught up in the first degree of rapture one experiences God as something separate from oneself. This is a state of rapture in which the outer senses cannot operate for one is carried away as it were into the realm of spirit. In this state you feel God more closer and more intimately than you can experience your own body. But it is still something that you experience. There is still you that has the experience, the process of experiencing, and the experience of God itself.

Although this gives great faith and moral courage to live only for God, it is not the highest state of rapture or communion with God. It alone cannot overcome Satan and destroy the ego, the false self, which is the father of sin. For this the higher state of rapture is needed.

In the higher state of rapture, here referred to as knowing God, this wall of partition is torn. There is no longer any separation between the devotee and God. There is no longer God and one who knows God for knowledge is direct. This is also called union with God or gnosis.

7. Little children, let no man deceive you; he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.

PARAPHRASE: He who finds righteousness ever flowing through all his actions, thoughts, feelings, desires, and ambitions has connected his life with God and thus has become righteous like Him. God's righteousness is flowing through him.

COMMENTARY: It should be noted that to be righteous means to be like God. The Son spreads life to all and so could possibly be thought of as doing something. The Father is beyond time, space, and causation. Action is not possible without time, space, and causation. It is not possible to designate God as righteousness based on how he acts. The righteousness of God the Father is a statement of the nature of his Being, not of his doing.

So to be righteous even as He is righteousness refers to our state of being, of being in Oneness with Him.

8. He that committeth sin is of the Devil; for the Devil sinneth from the beginning. For this is the purpose the Son of God was manifest, that he might destroy the works of the Devil.

PARAPHRASE: He who still succumbs to the temptations of this world has yet to fight the great Armageddon and overcome the wicked one; for he is still under the power of Satan. Satan has been deceiving people from the beginning. So God sent the teaching by which the Son can be manifested in one's consciousness in order to overcome the delusions wrought by Satan.

9. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

PARAPHRASE: When one is born into consciousness of God and so lives his life immersed in awareness of God he does not commit sin. People are let away and sin because of wrong desires. When one's desire remains within, intoxicated with the fullness of God's joy, how can he sin? But this state does not come by imagination. One must first be born into awareness of God.

10. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. PARAPHRASE: One way to tell if someone does not yet have God-realization is by his life. If sin remains he is not yet in God. And most certainly, if he does not love all he is not yet in God.

11. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

PARAPHRASE: You have always know that we should love one another.

12. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.

PARAPHRASE: But if we have bad habits and evil tendencies (Cain) we must be careful that they slay not our spiritual inclinations (Abel). It is very easy to fill life with restlessness and worldly thoughts (Cain). Yet so necessary that we fill it with the peace of long, deep meditation on God and the selfless service such communion inspires (Abel).

13. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.

PARAPHRASE: And don't be surprised if people condemn you or think you are crazy for devoting your life to God-communion.

14. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

Your feeling of love for others comes from God. It proves that God's life is at work in you. But pity the state of those who do not even feel or express love for others.

COMMENTARY: The ego is like a blackhole that leads no where. The ignorant live to serve the ego. In their blindness they do not see that the ego is death. He who has awakened to the expansive power of love and has renounced his alliance with the ego has passed from death unto life.

15. Whoso hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

PARAPHRASE: He that hates another is a murderer, he has violated the command not to kill, to be non-violent. And you know that violence is contrary to the nature of Eternity where the middle wall of partition (duality-see Eph. 2:14) is removed and all live in oneness.

COMMENTARY: It should be noted that eternal life is not referred to something to be gained in a never ending future time. The notion of eternal life being some forever continuing of the ego-bound state is very common in this culture so devoid of experience of spiritual realms. Time is a linear straightjacket that comprises a part of the bars of the ego. Without death there can be no time, and without time there can be no death. The last enemy to be overcome is Death. ( ) To have eternal life does not mean to have a contract to continue for all future time in the grave of the ego. When through divine love the wall of partition that separates our soul from God and from all other souls is torn asunder the graves give up the dead ego. Divine love sees God and all other souls as its very self. Hence the command to love others as one's self.

16. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

PARAPHRASE: We see the love of God manifest in the life of Jesus because He lived his life for the sake of others. So we ought to live our lives as an offering for the salvation of others.

17. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him. how dwelleth the love of God in him?

PARAPHRASE: But if, having the world's goods, you do not share with those in need, you cannot make a connection with God who is overflowing with compassion.

18. My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

PARAPHRASE: So don't resist the love of God by hiding it in your heart. Let it find expression in your actions. On the other side, don't let your good deeds be by wrote, but let them be impregnated with the feeling of God's love.

19. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.

PARAPHRASE: For when you are always busy working for God with His live in your heart you will see that it is He that is working through your hands, your heart, and your brain, and you will feel a great assurance that He is with you and that His will is being done.

20. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.

PARAPHRASE: But if we fail to feel that great assurance, if we fail to feel Him working through us, we know that the drawing power of His love is greater than all our bad habits and, being omniscient, He knows what we need to be lead back to His kingdom. So we can be confident that we will get there without fail.

21. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.

PARAPHRASE: But if we feel His love working through our hearts and hands we will have confidence in Him because of the feeling of the intimacy of His love, and we will be very anxious to know Him.

22. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

PARAPHRASE: And in the intimacy of that Love we will see that He is working to fulfill our desires. As we see Him giving us our different desires (some we may have forgotten, but He remembered) we will find that the nice thing about it is not the object of desire nor its fulfillment, but the great feeling of the tenderness of God's love. As long as we are working to fulfill our desires instead of to please Him we can't have that experience. So be careful every day that your seeking is to please Him. You can't fool God. He knows what is in your heart better than you.

23. And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.

PARAPHRASE: The way to please God is to rely on Him, to abandon yourself to Him. Give Him all your desires to do with as He pleases and seek only to please Him. Then you will find that He looks after You. If you have a need, a heartache, a problem, go to Him. Make Him your intimate, your confidant, your consolation. Do not expect anything from this world. Anchor yourself in Him. Realize that you are totally dependent on Him. Let your reliance on God's Blood, the omnipresent Love, the Son, be compete. People condition their happiness on so many things: on romance, on employment, on friends, on finances, on food, on homes. Let your happiness be unconditioned, dependent only on your fellowship with the unconditioned Joy of the Son. That is what it means to believe on the Son, to reach complete reliance on the Son. But we must also give expression to His love in service to one another and in working for their salvation.

24. And he that keepeth his commandment dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.

PARAPHRASE: He who fulfills His commands to believe on Him and to love others will, in believing on Him experience God within himself and, in serving others find He is always immersed in God. When we feel that boundless joy we will find that He is always with us.

PARAPHRASE: Dear ones, don't believe every Bible teacher or teacher of religion. There are many false prophets who do not know the truth of God and yet claim to teach it.

2. Hereby know ye that Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:

PARAPHRASE: Every person that can demonstrate that Jesus Christ, the omnipresent love and bliss of God, is fully come and lives in their flesh is a true prophet of God. He alone can testify from his own experience that Christ was fully manifest in the flesh of Jesus and that he therefore can be realized by us while yet in the flesh.

3. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

PARAPHRASE: The objective of the Antichrist is to prevent you from conscious realization of the omnipresent love and bliss of God, to prevent you from receiving the omnipresent Christ into your consciousness. He that teaches that you cannot receive Christ and thus experience His omnipresent Bliss is not teaching the truth about God. He is the agent of Antichrist whether he realizes it or not.

4. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

PARAPHRASE: But you are children of God, made in His image and likeness, you are partakers of His Being. So greater is He that is in you, God's image and likeness, than all the forces of the Antichrist. You cannot fail to win the Goal if you but fight the war.

5. They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.

PARAPHRASE: The false prophets speak of worldly ways to those who are worldly. Worldly people do not want to give up attachments to things of this world, they do not want to do penance nor follow the difficult path to Spirit. That is why they listen to the false prophets who pamper their laziness, excuse their attachments, and either say that God can never be known directly or that no effort is needed to know Him.

6. We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

PARAPHRASE: Those who are earnest about truth and really want to know God will try out our teaching and find for themselves that we teach the truth by their own increasing realization of God's peace, love and joy in deep and long meditation. Those who do not give our teaching a fair trial are not in earnest about knowing God.

7. Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.

PARAPHRASE: Dear ones, carry the love, joy, and peace of God you feel in meditation with you throughout the day, and express them in all your actions. He who expresses his love to others with the ever increasing joy of meditation is being born of God and coming to know Him.

8. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

PARAPHRASE: He who's life is not an embodiment of love does not know God, for God is love.

9. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son unto the world, that we might live through him.

PARAPHRASE: The manifestation of the love of God is this: that God sent His Son into the dualistic or vibratory creation to enliven it with consciousness; and eventually to lift it back to awareness of the vibrationless Infinite.

10. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

PARAPHRASE: It is not really us, as the little ego, that loves God. It is the omnipresent Love, the only perfect reflection of the uncreated Infinite in creation, that awakens that Love in us: and it is that heart-melting Love that melts the result of our sin and our tendency to sin according to the degree that we tune in to Him through meditation, surrender, and love-inspired service.

11. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

PARAPHRASE: Dear ones, because the nature of God is to love all with unbounded love, if we are to know Him who is love itself we also must love one another.

12. No man hath seen God an any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

PARAPHRASE: God is not a human form that we can see with physical eyes. When we feel love for all life it is because the omnipresent God dwells in us.

13. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.

PARAPHRASE: It is through communion with His Spirit in meditation that we come to know that we dwell in Him and He in us. When we experience His qualities, His nature, within us by meditation we know that He dwells in us. How else could we experience peace that passeth understanding, intoxicating joy, and all-embracing love? But we experience these qualities of God through meditation. It is because in meditation He gives us a taste, a glimpse, of His Spirit.

14. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

PARAPHRASE: When we experienced the Son we found that His love was omnipresent and all-embracing. From the tiniest ant to the farthest star, from the greatest saint to the darkest sinner - His love was equally present and all-embracing. So we have seen with spiritual vision (which is far more real than physical sight) that God sent His Son to be the savior of the whole world - not of one time, people or nation, of one race, religion or culture only.

15. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.

PARAPHRASE: Anyone who can testify with the conviction of his own experience that Jesus is the Son of God can do so only if first experiences God dwelling in Him and if he dwells in the omnipresent love of God. For in that experience he feels the omnipresent love in himself and himself in that omnipresent love. For if he has no experience of the omnipresent Son, how can he testify about it at all, let alone that Jesus has realized his oneness with the Son of God.

16. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

PARAPHRASE: And we have experienced and put all our confidence in that Love that God has for us. So we know that God is love; and he that dwelleth in this omnipresent love dwelleth in God and God in him.

17. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgement; because as he is, so are we in this world.

PARAPHRASE: It is through this inner meditation born experience of the omnipresent love of God, the Son, that our love is made perfect. It is not at all through working on loving better that our love is made perfect. Only through perfect identity with the Son who spreads life to all that our love can be made perfect.

Only then, when our love is made perfect, can we have complete confidence in the day of reckoning. For only then as God is, so are we. In other words, only then, through perfect identity, are we conscious of having the same inner nature as God while we yet live in this world.

In this state we can live in the world without any loss in awareness of God. If activity in this world causes loss in awareness of God then we cannot have boldness at final exams because we have not mastered the lessons of life. We have not subdued Satan, we have not conquered Death, so we cannot yet be made a pillar of realization in the temple of the Infinite to go no more out into the field of the dualistic creation, to learn more lessons of life. (Revelation 3:12)

18. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

PARAPHRASE: Keep in mind that this force that makes all things one is pure joy. It therefore eliminates all fear. Fear contains pain and so cannot remain in the face of pure joy. Anyone who is capable of fear is nor perfectly established in this all-uniting force of Love, the Son.

COMMENTARY: A fuller understanding of fear will reveal greater depth to this verse. Fear can arise only in the presence of desire. When the fullness of joy of God quenches all desire fear takes flight as darkness before the face of the sun. Again, if all personal desires are not solved by this fullness of joy one is not free to love perfectly.

19. We love him, because he first loved us.

PARAPHRASE: So remember the prime importance of the meditation techniques that you have received. It is by meditation that we tune in with and become aware of God's Love and Bliss. We cannot love what we do not know. But when we taste the Love and Joy of God through meditation we will be carried away in rapture. All else is so very dull by comparison! How then can we not love Him?

20. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how an he love God whom he hath not seen?

PARAPHRASE: God is love itself. If anyone says he loves God and yet hates any other person he is entirely mistaken. He has not learned to be honest with himself. He who cannot love one who is caught in form like himself certainly cannot love the formless Infinite.

21. And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

PARAPHRASE: Besides, we have learned this law to be true: that whoever loves God will also love his neighbor. That is why our savior Jesus taught us to love others - both to help us to know the love of God, and because God whom we seek loves each and all without reservation.

PARAPHRASE: Whoever thinks of Jesus as a man, a human personality, has obviously not yet been born of God. But whoever realizes through his own expanded consciousness that Jesus is one in consciousness with the omnipresent, all-embracing, all-blissful, love of God is born of God. Anyone who loves God will also love Jesus and all others who have been born of God. Those who reject saints who live in God because they are of another religion or tradition have themselves not been born of God. He that is righteous is born of God regardless of outer associations.

2. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.

PARAPHRASE: We will know that we truly love Jesus and others who are truly born from above if we love God and keep His commandments. Aspirants may feel a certain degree of reverence and devotion to God. But when God's love is born in him he will live in such intoxication with the love of God that he will have no desire but to please Him and do His will (keep His commandments).

3. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

PARAPHRASE: To one who has no love for God the commandments may seem very grievous. On the surface the command not to kill does not seem too grievous. But remember, to hate anyone is in the same category as murder (I John 3:15). When we hate another we wish evil for them and thus break the underlying principle of non-violence.

To not kill means not only to avoid wishing anything ill for any being but also to wish them well, to love your enemies. Further, it means to end the violence in one's own nature, to end the war between the pull of Satan toward worldliness and the pull of the Son toward God. Because the Son is eternal the only way to end this war is to overcome all worldly tendencies and become one with God.

The command not to covet requires overcoming all desire for worldly possessions, power, or recognition. These all require some sort of sacrifice on the part of another. At any rate they do not belong to us. They belong to the world. God belongs to us, for we come from Him and carry His image and likeness within us.

If one loves God it is not grievous to keep His commands. It is the height of joy because it means overcoming the world and realizing the sole ambition of his heart, to become one with his Beloved.

4. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

PARAPHRASE: Once someone tastes the Bliss of God, once God's Bliss has been born in him, the world loses much of its attractiveness. He is drawn irresistibly on the path of Spirit. He will never be able to forget the superiority of the Bliss of God until he finally overcomes the world and becomes one with God. The more one meditates and feels the bliss of God the stronger his conviction grows of the superiority of the Bliss of God over all that the world offers. This conviction born of experience is called faith. Faith cannot be refuted by logic because it arises from direct experience. It is this conviction that drives him on until he finds union with God.

5. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God.

PARAPHRASE: Who is he that overcomes the world? He who becomes so saturated with the Bliss and Love of the Son that he finds himself relying totally on the Son and not looking with desire after anything from the world.

6. This is he that came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness. because the Spirit is truth.

PARAPHRASE: Jesus is one in consciousness with the Son, and says only what will help lead us also into union with the Son. He did not come only through the water of his mother's womb, but also through the Son, the life-blood or Consciousness behind all consciousness, the Source and Sustenance of all consciousness. Since he came out of Christ, the Son, what he teaches is true because he is a witness of the Truth, ever watching that omnipresent Beauty.

7. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

PARAPHRASE: For there are three manifestations of the Absolute in heaven: God the Father as ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new Bliss beyond creation; God the Son as ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new Bliss omnipresent in creation; and God the Holy Ghost, the manifestation of Absolute Love and Absolute Bliss who makes creation manifest in its three-fold nature.

8. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.

PARAPHRASE: This three-fold nature consists of the individual Spirits or souls as individualizations of the Son, the ocean of thoughts and feelings as the mental and astral worlds, and the physical world of biological life supported by physical blood. These three are all rooted together in the one consciousness of the omnipresent Son.

9. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son.

PARAPHRASE: God, in truth, has sent forth His consciousness as the Son into creation to be the silent witness to the Reality of the Father. It is He who works through man's sense-consciousness, self-consciousness, sub-consciousness, and super-consciousness, ever coaxing him to forsake the boundaries of worldly consciousness for the unbounded love and joy of the Father. But it is not enough to accept our testimony.

10. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.

PARAPHRASE: You must work to make Him the sole center and support of your life until you become established in awareness of the Son. Then you will have the Witness in yourself and will not need any man to teach you, nor will any be able to dissuade you, for that Witness will reveal to you the Truth of the Father. He that does not work to make Him the sole center and support of his life is basing his life on falsehoods.

11. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

PARAPHRASE: The truth is that man's life arises from its source in the Son. The more man moves toward his source in the Son the more will he experience the infinite Life.

12. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

PARAPHRASE: The more he moves toward the dreams and illusions of the world the less will he experience of life. Life comes not from dreams and illusions. Life comes from the Son.

13. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

PARAPHRASE: So my two primary objectives in writing to you who are endeavoring to make your experience of the Amen, the Sound of Many Waters, your only solace and goal are one: that you may know that you already have the Infinite, Eternal, all-blissful Life of God in your Source in the Son, and that you will succeed in realizing it without fail. "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life," the infinite Life of God. (Revelation 2:10) And two: that you will be able to be successful in learning to depend entirely on the Joy of God for your happiness and not get mixed up with the desires of this world.

14. And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:

PARAPHRASE: It is God's will that you slay the ego, (that delusion born of Satan which makes you identify with body, mind and limitations) so that you will realize the Life of the Father. Therefore to pray for destruction of the ego is most effective.

15. And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

PARAPHRASE: So if you continually ask God to destroy your ego, (your little self born of identification with body and mind,) with understanding and sincerity, knowing that He will grant it, you will soon be amazed.

16. If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.

PARAPHRASE: If a brother disciple errors from the path because of bad habits, wrong environment, evil influences or wrong judgement you should seek to help him. But if he chooses to turn his back on the path God has given him there is perhaps nothing you can do.

17. All unrighteousness is sin; and there is a sin not unto death.

PARAPHRASE: All unrighteousness is still sin. But to actively pursue worldly goals as a means to happiness is not compatible with the pursuit of God. Bad habits and character traits will be overcome in time as one lives more and more in the consciousness of God's love and joy. Worldly duties should be performed as a love-offering to God, not as a means to happiness. It is only when they are done to please God that they will yield true and lasting happiness.

18. We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.

PARAPHRASE: But when the heavenly birth comes, and one revels in the omnipresent Bliss of God, all traces of sin fly away. They cannot survive in a mind-soil that is saturated with the Bliss of God. He that is born of God keeps his heart ever busy with the Love and Bliss of God so that Satan cannot work any evil in him.

19. And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.

PARAPHRASE: We know that this world is under the sway of Satan's delusion. Those who seek happiness here will find everything but happiness. For it is from the infinite Bliss of God that we have come. It is for that Bliss that we live. And someday we will again merge in that fathomless Bliss.

20. And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.

PARAPHRASE: We know that the ever-pure consciousness of God has come into the world of duality, the vibratory creation, to awaken all to consciousness of the Father; and that He has further manifested fully in the consciousness of Jesus, and given us an understanding that we are in Him that is eternal, and not at all a part of this ever-changing display of appearances. So if we abide in Jesus, who is one with the Father, we know that we too will realize our oneness with the Father. To realize our oneness with the Father is to know Eternal Life.

21. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen

PARAPHRASE: So now you understand the necessity and great purpose of keeping yourselves from attachment to anything in this world. You must let nothing stand between you and God, between you and your desire to please Him. You must be ready at every moment to leave all and race into the heart of the Beloved! Amen